The St. Landry Parish Council is waiting until its next regular meeting in two weeks to decide whether to request an opinion from the attorney general on matters of legalities for the use of the abandoned St. Luke's Hospital in Arnaudville.

At the special meeting Feb. 1, the council was supposed to discuss requesting an Attorney General's opinion on if taxpayer money could be used to renovate the St. Luke's Hospital building after the building has been donated or sold and if the proceeds of that district have to be used exclusively for the purposes for which the tax was levied.

The St. Landry Parish Council voted in their January meeting to abolish the St. Luke's Hospital District, the board that oversaw the property and to acquire the building for the parish. The hospital district has been jointly owned by St. Landry and St. Martin parishes since 1963, and the hospital has been closed since 1990. The St. Martin Parish Council is expected to vote on dissolving of the district and board on Tuesday.

Community members in Arnaudville have been lobbying for the hospital to be transformed into a hub for a French immersion program, including Mavis Fruge, director of the Jacques Arnaud French Studies Collective in Arnaudville that has been spearheading the project.

"It's been a long time; eight years we've been playing with this project," said Fruge. "The building has been vacant for over 10 years. What was once a good building is in deplorable condition."

Fruge said the abandoned hospital building would be perfect for the French immersion program because it's in the middle of Arnaudville, and many of the people in Arnaudville are fluent in French.

Lejeune said the meetings being held are not about French immersion, but about the hospital district, and that the district and board was dissolved because it wasn't being used. He also said he supports French immersion 100 percent, but the building isn't going to be automatically given to the French immersion program and that they would have to bid for leasing like any other interested business.

"If this building goes up for lease, then they are welcome to look into leasing it," said Lejeune.

Fruge said if the French immersion program can get the building, she expects it to take at least a year to renovate the building, and if they can't get the building, there is a second location being considered. There's a property in Arnaudville owned by the St. Martin School Board with two abandoned buildings that Fruge has considered, but she said they would take much longer to renovate because they are in much worse condition than the St. Luke's property.

"We'll make the French immersion program happen," Fruge said. "Our plans are to stay in Arnaudville."

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Arnaudville resident and French Immersion advocate Jacqueline Cochran addresses the St. Landry Parish Council during a special meeting Wednesday to discuss the future of St. Luke’s Hospital in Arnaudville.(Photo: Freddie Herpin, Daily World)